Staging to sell
Clutter? What clutter?
To build a strong first impression, consider highlighting your home’s strengths by getting rid of clutter with these small-scale decluttering suggestions. Say bye-bye to dusty fake plants. In the kitchen pitch out or box up all those gadgets, old spices, cookbooks, and doodads lining your countertops. For overflowing closets, donate clothes and shoes you haven’t worn in a year, replace wire hangers with wooden or pretty padded versions, then spritz those spaces with some air freshener! Need I say anything about those stacks of magazines, catalogs, DVDs, VHS tapes, and newspapers? And if your garage, attic
and/or basement have reached maximum capacity, then take a hard look at your stuff and ask what you can live without because in a short period of time a bunch of strangers will be going through every square inch of your home and their offers will reflect three things — price, location and condition. Two of those three things are under your control.
Floating furniture and musical chairs
A large-scale decluttering suggestion, and a way to make rooms look bigger, is to remove some furnishings from each room; overcrowded rooms with furniture too large for the space will only make rooms appear small and cramped. Once you’ve slimmed down your space, consider floating pieces away from the wall to create a more interesting room composition and make a large space more user-friendly and intimate. Place pieces so that the traffic flow is obvious by repositioning sofas and chairs into cozy conversational groups, or move an upholstered chair out of the living room and into the bedroom to create a snugly sitting area.
Another idea is to place a little-used table in front of a sunny window, top it with a whimsical lamp, some desk accessories and voilà, you have a charming escritoire. And don’t stop with the furniture, move some art around and creatively display pictures and prints into groupings to make them stand out, and show off your space. Email Leslie A. Ramsey, Realtor, at leslieramsey@att.net or call 501-620-3909. Hot Springs 1st Choice Realty is located at 135B Mall Road, Hot Springs AR 71913.